NPP: STOP MORTGAGING GHANA’S FUTURE!

At a time when China is able, and willing, to fund infrastructural projects in nations like Ghana on generous terms, why is our nation venturing unto the capital markets of the West, ostensibly to source funds for our country’s development? It is an outrage that the regime that has been so fortunate, as to be able to reap today, where it did not sow yesterday, and has had virtually all of Ghana’s external debt, of old, cancelled, during its tenure, is piling up yet more external debt.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP), is enjoying the fruits of the labour of some of us - and we resent the fact that although they did not have the vision or the intellectual capacity (in terms of original thinking!) then, during the nineties, to think outside the box, and see the importance of campaigning to demand that the West cancel the albatross of our external debt - because it was squeezing the very lifeblood out of our country - it is today, insisting on saddling future generations of Ghanaians, with yet even more hard currency debt. This really is monstrous, dear reader, is it not?

And as the usual spin-doctors and praise-singers swing into action, the highly irresponsible foray unto the capital markets of the West, by the regime of the masters of the universe, who are currently in charge of our homeland Ghana, is being hailed as a coup, by clueless and mercenary media types - with an agenda of their own. One particularly nauseating editorial, in one of those ghastly cliché-ridden NPP rags (that thinks so highly of itself, it actually thinks it is God's gift, to mother Ghana!), thought that this financial grand folly, was actually some kind of a breakthrough, for Ghana!

Yes, dear reader - it is indeed a breakthrough, for those well-connected and well-heeled Ghanaians, who are advising the stubborn and myopic regime (which is full of lackeys doing the bidding, of sundry special interests) that is embarking on this idiocy: and will be charging fat advisory fees in hard currency, and will now also be hobnobbing, with the greedy merchant bankers in the West (who must be drooling at the mouth, at the prospects of rooking naïve and greedy Africans silly, in gargantuan advisory fees)! It simply doesn’t bear thinking, dear reader.

It is nothing short of a national disaster and tragedy, that the men and women, who thought they were going to develop Ghana, with money hidden under the mattresses of the owners of a Chinese hairdressing salon, located in the seedier parts of London, have now graduated from that farce, to fishing for kick-backs, in the piranha-infested waters, of the capital markets of the Western world. Pastor Otabil, please call God (collect?) immediately - and ask him for a miracle for mother Ghana, “asap”.


The question we must ask ourselves, dear reader, is: why exchange generous long-term funds from China, with long grace periods, super-low interest rates, and payment due in decades hence, for the unchattered waters, of the capital markets of the West, where merchant bankers and hedge fund titans, reeling from the aftershocks of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market debacle, will hold Ghana as a hostage to fortune? What rates of interest are we talking about - do they compare to similar rates for the same instrument, issued by other governments?

And were those governments charged similar fees by their Western financial advisors? Would it not have been far better, to have approached the Japanese government, and issued those bonds on the Tokyo market, with its super-low interest rates, if they insist on carrying on with this irresponsibility?How, dear reader, can we trust the regime, which was reluctant to itemize the 20 million U.S. dollars that was fritted away, in scandalous overpayments for outrageous items, such as a 300 million old-cedi website, and 200-plus luxury vehicles?

And will some of the money be allocated to finishing that outrageous presidential palace complex - which I predict will end up costing nearly 100 million U.S. dollars: if lawns and watering equipment is costing millions of dollars! Clearly, all this shameful irresponsibility is happening, because of our anticipated oil wealth. Well, the earlier the greedy hypocrites amongst those currently in charge of our homeland Ghana, get the message that Ghana’s anticipated oil wealth, is earmarked solely for projects and initiatives, which will bring about social transformation in our country, the better it will be for them.

Safeguarding Ghana’s anticipated oil wealth is a non-negotiable issue - and no politician or political party, will be allowed to fritter it away, under any circumstances. Period.We have all tolerated the blatant examples of causing financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state, over the years, in order not to rock the democratic boat - but we are drawing the line where Ghana’s anticipated oil wealth is concerned. We will never tolerate any attempt to fritter that wealth on the kind of obscenities we saw prior to the AU summit and for the golden jubilee Independence Day anniversary celebrations.

And all the parties in opposition, must unite and demand that the regulators in the financial services sectors of the nations, which that expensive abomination called the “road show”, is being taken to (at such great cost to hapless Ghanaian taxpayers), find out, if the fees being pocketed by the sundry advisors chosen arbitrarily to place the Ghana government hard currency bonds (the so-called sovereign bonds!), mean that our country has been grossly overcharged by those predators, for their services.

They must also insist, in their campaigning for the December 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, that they will tear up all inimical agreements which Ghana has entered into since the tenure of the NPP regime - especially the agreements with the oil companies operating off our coastline. Oil is a depleting asset, so we must make the most of our good fortune - and Hugo Chavez-like agreements, are the only kind, we must entertain, in Ghana's oil industry, henceforth. Period.

There will be very painful consequences for those who think they can use Ghanaian democracy as a cloak to protect themselves, as they loot our country’s anticipated oil wealth. If any such attempt is made, ordinary Ghanaians will bring the 4th Republic to an immediate end (and thank heaven they are closing that chapter of unparralled greed and hypocrisy, in our history!), declare a state of emergency, and install the Chief Justice into office, to head an interim administration of technocrats, for a period of six months, prior to the holding of elections for a new president and parliament, and the inauguration of a new 5th Republic.
The six month interim period, will see the drafting of a new constitution, which will build on the good points of the old 1992 constitution, and improve its obvious weaknesses.

And like the short interregnum of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) era, all the crooks who have "chopped Ghana small" and participated in the gang rape of mother Ghana, will be dealt with appropriately, in the law courts - and if it means that they will have to follow in the footsteps of the Victor Serlomeys, the Kwame Peprahs, the Dan Abodakpis and spend time in the Nsawam prison, well, so be it: and we will not shed a tear for them, either. Period. Hmm.Ghana. Asem ebaba debi. May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana always. Long live Ghana! Long live freedom! Kofi Thompson can be reached by email at: peakofithompson@yahoo.co.uk and by SMS text message on: (027) 745 3109.